Michelle Obama: Hugger-In-Chief?

Michelle Obama's hugs — once the source of a minor diplomatic scandal when she embraced the Queen of England — are now the keystone of her campaign, Jodi Kantor, the first couple's biographer, wrote in the New York Times.

Although the first lady is known to deliver "scathing critiques of Republicans" in private, Kantor writes, her advisers think "she is most potent when she does not appear overtly political and that she comes across best as a gracious noncombatant in the red-and-blue wars." Translation: Obama is hugging her way out of the "angry black woman" stereotype, which, coincidentally, the first lady thought Kantor's biography of her propagated. Obama's aides say the hug is not a political tactic, but an attempt to "narrow the gap" — both in literal height and stature — between her and the voters, Olympic athletes, and schoolchildren whom she's embracing.